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Silk Plant Forest panel says it needs more time
It wants to review what retired officer said about Marker probe
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Published: June 23, 2009
The citizens committee reviewing the Silk Plant Forest case is asking for a final extension to finish its work.
The committee, which has been meeting since March 2008, needs the time to review a transcript of retired detective Don Williams' testimony June 11 before the Winston-Salem City Council, members said last night.
The committee is reviewing the 1995 attack on Jill Marker inside the Silk Plant Forest, a store off Silas Creek Parkway. Its interim report said that committee members had no confidence in the police work on the case and that there was no credible evidence that Kalvin Smith, the man convicted in the case, was at the store that night.
Smith is serving 23 to 29 years in prison and lost his bid in January for a new trial. His attorneys are now preparing an appeal of that decision.
Without an extension, the committee would have until the end of the month to finish its report. The transcript from the 5½-hour hearing is expected to be ready about the same time.
The city council had granted an extension in February to try to compel Williams to testify, and would now need to agree to another delay.
"It sounds like a reasonable request to me," Mayor Allen Joines said last night. "They would need at least a week to review the transcript."
The review committee talked about Williams' testimony last night in closed session, citing the opinion of City Attorney Angela Carmon that discussion of Williams' work could be comments on his job performance, which would be protected by personnel-privacy laws. Similar reasoning led city officials to hold Williams' hearing in closed session.
The committee's next, and likely last, meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. July 16.
The review committee is waiting to hear back from Police Chief Scott Cunningham on its request to have Cunningham order two current detectives involved in the case to take polygraphs.
In other business, the committee voted 9-0 to withdraw its request for a subpoena from the city council to the Winston-Salem Journal and former reporter Phoebe Zerwick.
Both the committee and the city council had asked the Journal for Zerwick's notes from an interview with Williams in 2004 in which he said he kept some information out of his written reports to keep it from Smith's defense. Williams has since denied saying that.
The Journal's editors have declined to provide the notes or agree to let Zerwick testify, citing their belief that voluntarily cooperating with a government body threatens the paper's independent role and the trust it has with sources.
District Attorney Tom Keith had also considered trying to subpoena the paper at the time Williams' comments were published, but decided not to because he believed he would not able to overcome the state's laws protecting media from such efforts.
"It would be beating a dead horse," Barry Lyons, a committee member, said before he moved to drop the request.
■ Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at dgalindo@wsjournal.com.
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